Saturday, June 28, 2014

Anson Burlingame's lament: Why are we destroying great leaders like Rohr, Huff, Wallace?

For those who have sampled frequent Joplin Globe guest columnist Anson Burlingame's blog, one thing you will quickly notice is that his responses to comments are just as long, and sometimes longer, than his posts, which are also quite lengthy.

Today, in one of those responses, Burlingame, who is a confidant of  C. J. Huff, Mark Rohr, David Wallace, and others he considers to be above reproach. once again lashed out at me, the Gang of Five from the Joplin City Council, and anyone else who does not worship at the altar of those who have been deemed heroes of the Joplin Tornado, or who have pushed the master development of the city:

Thus, today in Joplin, political stalemate is all around us. The only way out of it is good, great leadership. And we fired the best city leader I have ever seen in living around the country for decades, Mark Rohr, simply because he was a “bully” for Christ’s sake!!!



As well Turner and his supporters want to do the same thing to another great leader, C J Huff who literally brought about five different schools out of the ashes in three years, got public approval to raise taxes, etc. Absolutely crazy thinking in my view to rid our city of good leaders, honest men and hard workers. And yes, I put David Wallace in that camp as well. I have met the man, talked at length with him, challenged him strongly and always gotten solid answers, answers that make sense to me, right back from him. I have also done the same things with Dr. Huff, thanks to his willingness to even speak with me, an old rabble rouser of sorts with strong views on education.

At the national and international level there is no way I can go one-on-one with leaders or want-a-be leaders. I have to rely on the internet, the media and other sources to form my views. But locally, well sit down with the likes of Bill Scearce, listen to him for over three hours and then decided, him or David Wallace or Mark Rohr. The choice to me was very simple after doing exactly that, look men in the eye and deciding for myself just what kind of men they might be.

As well I have been doing exactly that with Carol Stark, C J Huff, etc. for several years. They come out so far ahead of Randy Turner, in my view, that there simply is no contest.

And thus I write my opinions on such things, about local matters. Leadership is what counts to me Ben and when I look someone in the eye I can form my own judgments about their ability to lead. You can read all about that opinion, anytime you like, right here in this blog, the goal of which is clearly stated, “to find solutions to vexing problems…..”.

One last shot. I hate writers that simply cherry pick the information now available online. There is enough out there, now, to make Christ himself look like the devil!!. Linking a whole bunch of “stuff”, “reporting” things found online with a decided slant intended well before ever looking online for the “truth”, etc. is just more politics of the sort that I don’t like.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who knew that Anson Burlingame was such an authority on determining who is a good leader based on a "sit down" and looking them in the eye. Forget the fact that Mark Rohr was "simply a bully", David Wallace is all but bankrupt and probably facing some pretty serious legal troubles, and that CJ Huff is a narcissistic buffoon. We should simply put all that aside because Anson declared them "good." Thanks Anson.

P.S. You may want to get your vision checked.

Anonymous said...

You forgot to mention that he also said you did absolutely nothing for the public interest, and that every idea you had that he saw was a bad one. On The Erstwhile Conservative blog he defends his opinion by stating he was the commanding officer on a nuclear sub and had the awesome responsibility of having his finger on the nuclear trigger. Thus, all his decisions are based on serious and considerable thought processes. He will be attending Ignite Church tomorrow to determine whether they are beng maligned or if he can look into their eyes and determine that they are bat crap crazy for giving away AR-15's to members.

Anonymous said...

Anson at the trigger of any weapon scares me-but a nuclear weapon?

Most of us a have problem with commentators that base their thoughts on gut instinct and how they "feel" about someone. That means we have to trust their judgment instead of using facts to arrive at conclusions.

I hope the military has improved its process for nuclear sub commanders.

Anonymous said...

No single officer on a SSBN is able to launch its missiles. Just like with our land based missiles, it requires several, and if we're to believe Wikipedia, only after the sub receives codes from higher authority outside it.